The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Blake Masters is graduating from Stanford Law School this month.

Guest post written by Stanford Law student Blake Masters.

Update 3/19/13: Masters has changed the name of his startup from Amicus Labs to Judicata. That change has been reflected in the third paragraph.

This spring, legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel taught a class at Stanford University called Computer Science 183: Startup. Back in March, before the course had started, Thiel made a bold declaration: “If I do my job right, this is the last class you'll ever have to take.”

He did his job right. It is the last class I’ll ever take.

I’m not dropping out—something Thiel had suggested that more entrepreneurially-minded young people should consider. But I am graduating from law school next week and cofounding Judicata, a legal tech company.

I’ve been blogging my class notes for the past 10 weeks. Thiel’s lectures and the subsequent discussions with guest speakers (a veritable who’s who of Silicon Valley from LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman to Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen to PayPal co-founder Max Levchin) made for fascinating study. In some sense, summarizing the material does it injustice—as Thiel acknowledged, the course itself only scratched the surface of possible analysis and discussion--but here are 10 of the key lessons in condensed form.

1. Globalization is not (all there is to) progress.

Technology, to our great detriment, is the forgotten side of the coin.

Globalization basically means copying things that work. “Developing” countries copy 19th century railroads and 20th century plumbing. There is no innovation; you go from 1 to n. Technology, by contrast, involves doing new things. True technology companies—Facebook, Palantir, SpaceX—involve going from 0 to 1.

People focus too much on the 1 to n of globalization and not enough on technology. But to be great, you have to do something new and important. All great companies solved the 0 to 1 problem in unique ways. All failed companies somehow botched it.